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There’s been so much noise this year that it’s now come to the point when I’ve got to take a break from the music in order to concentrate on personal and creative endeavours. Writing about artists I respect or care about gets tiresome when all I seem to end up doing is providing content that generally goes unappreciated. That’s not to say the sites that run my words are under-subscribed, or that the editors of those sites are anything but supportive, or that those artists aren’t deserving of support, but I’m not making a living as a writer and I’m under no illusions about that.

Though the benefits once outweighed the drawbacks, they no longer do. In fact, benefits like free festival tickets and CDs are a pain now. I frequently don’t care for the CDs PR companies send and hassle me about, and most festivals these days aren’t for me. It seems ungrateful, yes, but I think there are better ways to spend my time than trekking or trawling over something I do not, and will not enjoy. There are more writers more committed to music than myself, and I know where to find their work (and it is work that I hugely admire).

I’m not saying this is the end of music reviews etc for me, but – as of September 30th – I need some time away from the noisome digital world to spend more time furthering creative process.

If there is anyone reading this and you are a regular visitor, then thank you for taking the time to read this.

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How wrong is this?

When a beer company approaches you and offers up two free pint glasses featuring limited edition ‘artwork inspired by music’ (and some badges), start seeing red. You may remember some of Beck’s’ earlier campaigns such as getting up and coming artists to produce art for their bottles, or perhaps Damien Hirst’s tiresome thirsty work for the German brewer.

Regardless, this campaign is about beer and art inspired by music.

I received this unsolicited email earlier today:

From:
Chris Welton

Message:

Hey Ash,

How’s it going? I’m Chris and I work with Beck’s Vier.

This summer has seen the Beck’s Vier Music Inspires Art tour with
headline acts like The Horrors, Gold Panda, These New Puritans and
Metronomy. (http://www.facebook.com/becksvier).

As part of all this activity we have created some limited edition
concept pint glasses that have been designed by some of the finest
emerging artists using musicians as their inspiration.

I wanted to get in touch today to see if I could send you through
both of these glasses?

Let me know your address and I’ll get this in the post along with a
few specially designed badges as well.

If you need any more information just drop me a line.

Cheers,

Chris

I had a look around on a few sites (here, here and here for starters), and saw a few ‘music sites’ offering up these fab glasses as prizes. But what struck me was that some artist chose to use Black Flag to inspire their ‘art’ for a pint glass. Anyone who knows anything about Black Flag will know that that’s not right.

After disseminating my disgust on Twitter, the observant @mandrewB noticed that the lyric Beck’s attribute to Black Flag actually comes from Joy Division‘s ‘Transmission’.

So I wrote back to Chris at Beck’s.

Dear Chris,
 
Thanks for the offer, but I’m assuming there’s been a huge fuck up somewhere.
 
The first line of the Black Flag’s ‘TV Party’ is not, “Radio…Live transmission”.

What is being quoted there is the first line of ‘Transmission’, by Joy Division.

Black Flag’s ‘TV Party’ features on the same album (Damaged) as ‘Six Pack’ which is another of the Flag’s anti-drinking songs.
 
Furthermore, Rollins doesn’t even drink, so I don’t see how your artist has managed to put the ethos of a seminal hardcore punk band together with beer. TV Party is an ironic piss take of men with nothing better to do than sit around, drink beer and watch TV. It is not literally about getting loaded.

If you read Stevie Chick’s brilliant biography of the band, or just look on Wikipedia, you’ll realise what a huge mistake this is.
 
Best wishes,
 
Ash Akhtar.

Chris replied:

From:
Chris Welton

Message:

Hey man,

We’ll get on fixing that first line copy, it’s obviously not right. Apologies.

This whole project challenged young artists from the YCN to create designs based on music that inspires them. We did a similar thing last year as well.

I can see your point but it was really up to them and this particular artist loves TV Party and the design is inspired purely by that music.

Thanks for getting back to me.

Cheers,

Chris

So, this the artist’s fault? Is that missing apostrophe from ‘tracks’ in the ad’s very first line the artist’s fault too?

Does this fiasco mean that Beck’s know:

a) Fuck all about music.
b) Fuck all about art.
c) Both.

Leave your answer to the question in the comments below.

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This is not a review. This is a memory.

I was 25 and living in Birmingham. Billy called me up and said, “Ash. We’ve got a spare ticket for the Academy tonight. Queens Of The Stone Age are playing.”

I’d no idea who they were, but Billy was a good friend of mine, and this was a free night out.  When you’re an aspiring, failing musician in Birmingham -- this is no bad offer.

I’d never heard of the band, not sure many of us had. King Adora were support. No-one cared about them. Ever. KA played. I watched, bored, with a warming pint in my hand. The Birmingham Academy (previously, The Hummingbird) was half-full. The floor was still sticky from the previous night. It was always a shit venue.

KA finished and we milled about stage left about four rows in from the front. There was enough room to walk about in a circle. The guys I was with were in a band called Chromium Hijack. With the exception of Billy (who was Asian), they were an all black rock band in Birmingham -- with some talent too. Though they ended up splitting, I joined them on guitar for an EP which I have somewhere. Went nowhere -- same as many things in Birmingham.

QOTSA came on. I think they started with ‘Feel Good Hit Of The Summer’, I can’t be too sure. It’s not as if they were the greatest live band ever, but they were different to anything any of us had seen before. After a couple of tracks, Nick walked off stage and came back completely naked. He had his bass on, but you could see his flaccid, bald cock and balls each time you looked at him.

‘The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret’ started; I flipped. Straight went nuts. I remember pulling jackets to jump higher -- the Hijack boys were always cool. Billy got into it, though.The rest of the show was a blur.

I bought Rated R from Tempest Records (now defunct, apparently) the next day. I loved it the moment I got through it. It’s a great, great record.

You don’t have to agree. It is.

So, the remaster is pretty incredible.  Sounds like a touch of stereo limiting, widening the stereo effect and some kind of easy compression that just makes the listener want to crank the volume to get the extra from the amp. You know? Like a good rock record used to make you feel. If you don’t already own this record, then now is the perfect time to buy it. Don’t believe me? Here’s a link to the record on Spotify. If you don’t believe your own ears, then you’re past help.

Now, repeat after me:

Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, Marijuana, Ecstasy and Alcohol

Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, Marijuana, Ecstasy and Alcohol

Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, Marijuana, Ecstasy and Alcohol

Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, Marijuana, Ecstasy and Alcohol

C-c-c-c-c-Cocaine!

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